The New Apple TV Is Great. And Then There's the Remote.

Deep down, every streaming media device is basically the same: It's a black box or a stick that plugs into your TV and lets you play Netflix and Hulu. Yes, different ecosystems have (or lack) one or two different apps, and some companies are trying to push the gaming aspect of their new devices. But 90 percent of what you're going to do on the new Apple TV you could also do on a Google Nexus Player or a Roku.

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There are three big ways to separate yourself in this tightly crowded market. The first is what your box can do, and here Apple is doing great: It's got all the standard apps, it's got the new HBO Now, it plays with your music in iTunes, and many of the games you're already playing on your iPhone. The second is how it looks, and it looks great; I have a four-year-old Apple TV in my house and this new one is sleeker, with a prettier UI. It feels like 2015 Apple design, as opposed to the hard grid of the old box. The third way—and arguably the most important for your sanity—is how your interact with it.

Which is why we need to talk about the new Apple TV remote.

Swipe, Tap, Click

Gone is the classic, simple Apple TV remote with a D-pad, a play/pause button, and a menu button. Replacing it is something a bit more complex. The top half of the new remote is a trackpad. You slide your finger across it to move the cursor, and push on it to click and select something. You've got a couple of menu buttons, volume control, play/pause, and a new button to call upon Siri. More on that later.

The trackpad certainly feels futuristic compared to the D-pad you'd be using elsewhere. In practice, it's just imprecise enough to drive you crazy.

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The trackpad certainly feels futuristic compared to the D-pad you'd be using on Google's Nexus Player or a Roku. In practice, it's just inexact enough to drive you crazy.

For example: Out of the box, the first thing you're going to do with Apple TV is input a lot of text. You input your Wi-Fi network name and password, then your Apple ID and password. To get apps, you need to enter your Apple ID and password again to confirm the purchase or download. Once you've got Netflix and Hulu on your device, you've got to remember and enter your logins there.

Unless all your passwords are 12345, you'll find yourself entering dozens and dozens of characters to make this happen. It's annoying in general but it took me an eternity with the Apple TV remote. Instead of an on-screen QWERTY setup, the Apple TV interface gives you the alphabet in a single horizontal band from A to Z. Worse, the touchpad is sensitive enough that about once every 10 characters or so, I would accidentally swipe over to the wrong letter while trying to click.

Yes, entering strings of characters using anything but a real keyboard is a pain in the ass, and always has been. Doing so with a D-pad is just as cumbersome and patience-killing as it was 30 years ago when you were entering your initials on NES high scores. But typing with the new remote seems somehow even worse, by being arduous and occasionally imprecise.

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typing with the new remote seems somehow even worse, by being arduous and occasionally imprecise.

You can tweak the sensitivity in Settings between slow, medium, and fast, but nothing can replace the precision of a physical button. The touchpad has its advantage—like swiping through very long lists with ease—but its biggest failings shows up at their worst when you're already neck-deep in an annoyance.

It may seem like a small complaint, but consider that unless you tell the box otherwise, you'll need to enter your Apple ID password every time you return to the App Store to grab some new apps, and you'll be entering new account information for everything that requires it. While the problem may get better as you slowly login to all your accounts, it's a real pain right up front.

Siri

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But going by Apple's selling points, criticizing the touch-and-click is almost beside the point. This box is about connecting Siri to TV. Before this update, Apple had lagged behind Roku and Google. Other boxes had incorporated voice search into their remotes that allows you to open Netflix or ask for a particular show via voice commands. Now Apple is trying to leapfrog the competition by giving its TV not only voice commands, but also the more complex talents of Siri.

Siri can do a lot. It can turn closed-captioning on and off, jump backward 10 or 15 seconds, or call up stats for your favorite player if you ask it to. If you ask Siri what someone just said, it can even rewind 10 seconds and turn the subtitles on just for that line. I have to tell you, it's pretty great. It feels magical and deeply satisfying, as opposed to using a remote to click back manually. And as the ad above makes clear, Apple is giving the hard sell on Siri's abilities as a recommendation engine.

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It's also limited. While streaming the Cowboys-Eagles game last night, I asked Siri where Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford went to college. "Oklahoma," she answered, and brought up a player card at the bottom of the screen. But when I asked about his high school I got a simple: "I can't help you with that." What gives?

Ask Siri the same question on your iPhone and you'll find the answer. Siri can't tell you, but it can offer a bunch of web links that might have the answer. But Siri on the TV isn't connected to a web browser. So, if you ask it for something beyond its capabilities, it can only shrug. You get a full Siri answer, or nothing at all. If you don't memorize what you can and can't do, you'll just get a lot of "I'm sorry, I can't help you with that."

Siri can be a big help if you know exactly what you're looking for, but much less so if you're just looking to browse hands-free.

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What's doubly frustrating is that Siri can't quite replace your remote either. Tell it, "I want to watch 'Law and Order: SVU'," and Siri dutifully displays where you can buy or stream which seasons of the show across the selection of apps that currently support Siri search. But Siri is not designed to navigate menus. Once you're in "SVU" in Hulu, you can't ask it to open a particular season.

Siri can be a big help if you know exactly what you're looking for, or if you're just browsing around for new movies by genre, but it falls short when you're somewhere in between.

iPhone to the Rescue?

The Apple TV remote is not all bad. The best experience I had with it was playing the driving game Pako. On the iPhone, the game relies on simple on-screen controls: Tap the left side of the screen to turn left and right to turn right. It's the same with the TV remote's trackpad, though here the controls are more refined and elegant. The trackpad is at its very best when you're working in shades of gray or racing to the end of some impossibly long list, as opposed to picking out specific letters.

The Apple TV remote is not all bad.

After slogging through three or four error-filled passwords while setting up the device, I gave up and tried to connect my iPhone via Apple's Remote app so I could type using its onscreen keyboard. No go: The new Apple TV doesn't work with Remote, and it might not ever.

Officially, Apple will only confirm that the new Apple TV doesn't support Remote, and won't comment on its future plans. So all you can do right now is set up your existing dumb-TV remote to work with Apple TV. It doesn't immediately make the pain of passwords go away, but it's a little better than fiddling with the trackpad and good for anyone who just doesn't want another remote in their lives.

In many ways, the new remote really is a leap past the competition, so you can see why Apple is committed to pushing it. Once you're all set up, the fidelity of touch controls can really be great. But Apple's new remote is at its worst during chores that are already a nightmare. Fortunately, there's a solution to that problem, and it's probably already in your pocket. Apple just needs to turn it on.

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